Dead or Alive 5, Persona 4 Arena dated

E3 2012: Tecmo Koei's latest brawler hitting Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 25, with Atlus fighting game landing August 7 on same platforms.

LOS ANGELES--Fighting game fans have two new dates to circle on their calendars. Tecmo Koei has announced that Dead or Alive 5 will arrive on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 25, with Atlus' brawler Persona 4 Arena landing August 7 on the same platforms. Dead or Alive 5 comes to retail this September.

Dead or Alive 5 is the first major installment in the series without Tomonobu Itagaki as head of developer Team Ninja. The game will see a lot of the cast returning, along with newcomers like Virtua Fighter's Akira.

As for Persona 4, the North American release will include the original Japanese voicing as well as a new English audio track, which Atlus says is "easily toggled" in the settings menu for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions.

I know that I'm in the minority, but Dead or Alive is my favorite fighting franchise. Besides being beautiful (and no, I'm not just talking about the ladies in the game, but the scenery) way beyond most comparable games at the time it was released, it does a good job of making characters look like they're actually hitting each other and no just passing through the "hit box" surrounding the character. And the hits look powerful too, especially the ones that destroy the surrounding scenery or knock a character to another level.

honestly, persona 4 arena will be good imo, doa5 will not. i love fighting games but doa itself has a flawed fighting system (the abusibe counter system), i doubt doa5 will be good considering itagaki left. persona 4 arena will play like blazblue which is fun, and have a good online mode

I have a strong feeling DOA 5 will suck without Itagaki and the ORIGINAL Team Ninja at the helm. I shall lower my expectations to casual level for this. It's about time they locked down a date for persona Arena, day 1 purchase in my book.

@KittyHeart lol@Abuseable counter system.... its an important part of the mechanics, and you have to know how to play the game.... You cant play DOA like you would another game, because it PUNISHES button mashing, and it punishes throwing out random combos hoping you hit something...That's like saying someone is abusing blocking....

@KittyHeart The abusable counter system? Not like most fighters don't have easily abused mechanics anyway such as 10 hit combo's, overly powerful specials etc. I think DOA5 will be fine and sure it's not done by Itagaki anymore but that doesn't mean it'll be bad, it's going through a few changes that seem interesting and the new look of the characters is a nice change.

to claim a game is not going to be good based on just one little problem is usually being a bit too rash to judge it. I don't see how countering someone with quick reactions is any different from just blocking and then counter attacking in a different form on other fighting games with quick reactions. Ultimately they reduced the time frame you can counter anyway at DOA4 if I remember and that 'flaw' in the fighting system is possibly with all characters so it's not really a flaw unless you feel the combat is too slow so the counters are too easy but DOA is one of the more fast and fluid fighters around.

@KittyHeart Disagree 100% on DoA5. How can you say that without playing it? Itagaki leaving has brought a breath of fresh air into the series. That's clearly evident in the new art style of the characters and visuals. But if DoA was never your thing then I don't see why the fifth game would concern you anyway...

@KittyHeart So true, after he left both the DOA and Ninja Gaiden series started going downhills, Ninja Gaiden 3 was the first 3D Nnija Gaiden game to not involve Itagaki and it was a big letdown to me. Sad that a port is coming to Wii U.

@ExplicitMikeLet's see, they didn't appear to give Tina any new moves at least not in this video. The graphics have improved a bit other than that, the combat feels like it did in part 4 except it's a lot slower since they added quicktime events.

:/

Regardless, I am trying to look forward to it because they might add Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter series (my babe!) then I'll have four mains insead of my usual 3 (Lei-Fang, Zack, Tina) Sarah would look great in a tag team with Tina, heh. Creates a blonde sort of theme. I really wish they removed those quicktime sequence. Just feels too cliche, I see it done far too often. The last thing i want is for this game to play like Dragon Ball Z Budokai 2/3 & DC vs MK. Fighting games should be based off of skill instead of which person guesses correctly or mashes faster. I'm sure if they removed QTE moments the game would be much better.

So tell me what are your impressions so far? They do your character justice?

@TheArcade I don't think they are doing that. I hope what they are doing is the Soul Calibur 5 lobby chat and spectator mode with just your names. I do wish they kept the old lobby system, but oh well I take any spectator mode over none.

Uh-oh, judging by 01:31 ~ 01:34 looks like they afforded Hayabusa an air grab. He's stealing the wrestlers shtick. To think he was lethal enough with his teleport and Izuna Drop counters. Those anti-Hayabusa players are in trouble.

Anyway, Sarah is also my favorite character in VF so when I saw her it gave me reason to be optimistic. Tina happens to be my main in DOA, Helena is my favorite story-wise. I respect her dominance in the ring. If they drop her DOA wouldn't be the same. I mess with her sometimes, some of my friends use her, I know a few of them would refuse to by the game if she is abscent. Brad Wong was a modest fighter if they leave him out I'd be kind of dissapointed. Even more dissapointed if Helena is gone.

The omission of the lobbies is a huge letdown. Please don't tell me they're using that stupid MvC3 lobby system where there is no spectator mode. Wait can more than one person join a session?

@TheArcade Plus one on the Sarah. She is my favorite in VF. You really should check out the E3 videos. The gameplay isn't as slow as you think. So far it looks good to me. I heard the lobbies are gone tho. That's major negative.TI haven't seen Brad wong yet. Him and Helena are my favorite so I dunno. I am still not totally sure about the game. Here is some better footage from so call pros.